So, I got two very similar prompts: Graham helps Emma remember after the events of 3x11 and Instead of Hook showing up at Emma and Henry's door. It's Graham (from 1000candels and afirewiel respectively). And this is what happened.
The knocking on their door is insistent. So Emma pushes away from the table and goes to answer it.
The man on the other side is tall and handsome, with curly brown hair and dark blue eyes. He's wearing a waistcoat and tie and… Well, he reminds her of a small-town cop. There's something, a nagging familiar feeling about him, something she can't quite place, a buried memory.
"Miss Swan?" he says, hopeful. He has an obviously Irish accent and it only adds to how attractive he is.
"Do I know you?" she asks.
"No, you've… You've never met me," his eyes flick to the shoelace on her wrist; she doesn't remember why she wears it, and that bothers her, but she remembers it's important. She thinks… There was a man? They weren't involved, because she was a single mother who didn't have time. But he had given it to her, maybe?
"What do you want?" she asks.
"Have you… Have you heard of a town, in Maine, a town called Storybrooke?" he asks. Like with him, there's an itchy familiar feeling when she hears the town name.
"I'm sorry…" she shakes her head, "No. Why?"
"It's um. It's not far from where you were found as an infant and… We think we've found your parents."
"My parents?" Emma looks at the man skeptically, "Even I quit looking for them…"
"Well, uh, not 'found them' per say… There's a, um. A couple that went missing back then. David Nolan and Mary Margaret Blanchard. No one ever connected it, but Miss Blanchard was… She was pregnant when they disappeared. We found… We found Miss Blanchard's body and the ME… He said that… That she… That she had just given birth when it happened."
The man is telling her a lie. All of it is complete bull and she's ready to shut the door in his face. The thing is… She doesn't want to. He intrigues her. She wants to know who he is and why he's lying.
"You're lying," she says softly, "I have this superpower. I can tell when people lie."
He hangs his head in shame.
"Emma," he sighs, "I'm sorry… I didn't know what else to tell you. Because… You've never met me, it's true. But I've met you. And I do know where your parents are and this is partially about getting you back to them."
"I don't understand, you know my parents?"
"Yes. I saved their lives." This part of his statement rings true.
"And you've somehow met me? Alright, tell me something about me that you wouldn't know otherwise."
"You were found on the side of the freeway in Maine with nothing but a baby blanket. White yarn and purple embroidery that spelled out your name, Emma. You never, ever show anyone that blanket unless you trust them completely. Your favorite doughnut is a bear claw, but you tend to tell people that you don't eat them at all. And except for the man who owned that shoelace on your wrist, you haven't let anyone get near you emotionally since your son's father left."
"How… How do you know that?"
He cups her face in his hands, and he leans in close.
"May I?" he whispers just before their lips would touch. She doesn't know why, but she nods, unable to speak, her heart beating a million miles a minute.
When his lips meet hers, visions go through her head at a lightning fast pace, of a life where she didn't keep Henry – and it terrifies her but this man whose lips are on hers is in the visions and they're close and things are right and then he's gone and it aches and suddenly she remembers taking the shoelace out of his boot because…
This is Graham. The man she loves.
"Graham?" she looks up at him, hesitating, disbelieving.
"That's right Emma. It's me."
"The second curse… It brought you back?"
"It did. But we need you to come back now. Your parents… Everyone. We need you, Emma."
She hugs him close to her for a moment, not ready to let go (she'll never be ready to let go, not of him), and then she pulls back.
"Henry," she calls into the apartment, "Pack some clothes. We're going on a trip."